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Undoing The Miseducation Of A Nation (feat. Dr. Larry P. Arnn) — Transcript

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0:00oh
0:19howdy everyone and welcome back to
0:20moment of truth the podcast of american
0:21moment my name is sarab sharma i'm the
0:23president of american moment and we have
0:25yet another solo episode i promise this
0:28is not going to be a trend uh your
0:30favorite ginger nick solomon will be
0:32back soon he is decamped to north
0:34carolina preparing for his impending
0:36nuptials um you can find all of the
0:39chronicles of that on his twitter go
0:41follow him at nick s solheim uh he's
0:43been cooking lots of meals for his uh
0:45in-laws and his parents who are who are
0:47back in town from honduras and uh having
0:49a lovely time we're all going up to the
0:51wedding here in a week so it's an
0:52exciting time for us in america moment
0:54we're very excited um but unfortunately
0:56it means that i occasionally have to go
0:58solo here but we have uh an incredible
1:01episode for you guys today we had on
1:04dr larry yarn the president of hillsdale
1:07college who is
1:09one of the most impressive human beings
1:11in american life i would say um there's
1:14there's a lot of criticisms to make of
1:16our current elite class in the country
1:18and
1:19how poorly they compared to
1:21leaders at any stage in american life
1:23whether it's the founders whether it's
1:25you know people have led through any
1:26century um or any decade but but dr arn
1:30comes pretty close as probably
1:31generational talent i know because
1:34everyone tries to get him to come run
1:35their organization uh about once a year
1:38and so um but he has stayed at hillsdale
1:40and he's been there for 20 years and
1:41he's grown it into something truly great
1:43we talk about
1:44um i would say a little bit more
1:46esoteric set of topics than we normally
1:48talk about here at american moment we
1:49talk about
1:51education what it's for he drops a lot
1:54of greek and latin translations um he is
1:56a i think a romantic in the truest sense
1:58of the word he truly loves what he does
2:00he loves education he loves this country
2:02um
2:03uh to give his formal bible i guess he's
2:05the the 12th president of hillsdale
2:07college where he's also a professor of
2:08politics and history he still teaches
2:10every semester makes time for it he
2:12received his ba from arkansas state
2:13university and his m.a and phd from the
2:16in government from claremont graduate
2:18school he also studied at worchester
2:20college at oxford university where he
2:21served as a director of research for sir
2:23martin gilbert the official biographer
2:25winston churchill if you look behind dr
2:27arn during the episode you'll find that
2:29we put a bus of churchill and lincoln as
2:31well as his copy of the 1776 project
2:35he
2:36from 1985 to 2000 he served as the
2:38president of the claremont institute for
2:39the study of statesmanship and political
2:41philosophy one of our favorite
2:42organizations here at american moment
2:43their current president as well as
2:45basically every single person on their
2:46staff
2:47from ryan williams on down our dear
2:49friends of ours we love everything
2:50claremont does go check them out
2:52and in 1996 he was the founding chairman
2:54of the california civil rights
2:55initiative which prohibited racial
2:56preferences in state hiring contracting
2:59and admissions he serves on the board of
3:01directors of the heritage foundation the
3:03henry salvatore center of claremont
3:04mechanic college the philadelphia
3:06society the intercollegiate studies
3:07institute and the claremont institute he
3:09served on the us army work college board
3:11of visitors for two years where he stern
3:13he earned the department of the army's
3:15outstanding civilian service medal and
3:17in 2015 he received the bradley prize
3:19from the lind and harry bradley
3:21foundation he's the author of three
3:23books liberty and learning the evolution
3:25of american education
3:27the founders key the divine and natural
3:29connection between the declaration and
3:31the constitution and what we risk by
3:33losing it and churchill's trial winston
3:35churchill and the salvation of free
3:37government i think dr arne has the
3:39privilege of being our oldest guest and
3:41he has the wisdom
3:43to carry with it
3:44he's a delightful man we're so honored
3:46to have been able to host him
3:48and we'll go now to dr larry yarn
3:51[Music]
4:02howdy dr arn thank you for being on the
4:03show great to be here nice to be with
4:05you we always like to get the story of
4:08how our guests got to the point where
4:09they are today how how does one become
4:11the uh um you know the leader of a
4:14college as as incredible as hillsdale
4:16college walk us through the the journey
4:18that brought you here
4:19uh long long chain of blind luck
4:23uh yeah i i grew up in northeast
4:25arkansas in the mighty metropolis of
4:28pocahontas and i went to the local
4:30college with
4:32three of my high school friends we
4:33decided in 10 minutes where to go
4:35and uh i was forced to take a class in
4:38college that i
4:40tried to get out of uh i remember all
4:43that with great interest because we
4:45studied plato's republic
4:47and uh made to do it with a very great
4:49man who lives in this town named jeff
4:51wallen
4:52and he just kicked the daylights out of
4:54me
4:55and it's the reason i'm not a lawyer
4:57today
4:58i went to graduate school instead and i
5:00met a great teacher and some very great
5:02friends of mine and we started the class
5:05students of professor jaffa we started
5:06the claremont institute
5:09and uh eventually i was the president of
5:11that thing i'm the youngest of them and
5:13in graduate school years three or four
5:14years is a lifetime you never actually
5:17get over that
5:18so they're all still my senior
5:21uh
5:22and but i became the president of it and
5:24i we had some success
5:26and then this college job came open
5:29and a great uh thing for all of you uh
5:32your listeners and watchers to know is
5:35if you want to be a college president
5:36you can be there's a thousand jobs a
5:39year that come open
5:40and there's nobody good to do them
5:43and so
5:44the last thing i ever wanted to be was a
5:46college president
5:48and then this job came open and they
5:51were interested in me
5:53and i was not interested in them
5:55and then
5:57you've been a publius fellow in
5:58claremont another publius fellow named
6:00bennett cooper a lawyer
6:03he's in phoenix and uh he said to me
6:08they're interested in you at hillsdale
6:09and i said yeah they are and he said
6:12read the articles of incorporation in
6:14the bylaws
6:15and i said i'm not gonna do that job
6:18and he said humor me
6:20i'm a lawyer
6:22so they called again and i said send me
6:24those
6:26and uh
6:27what i thought was i was going to get a
6:29bureaucratic document
6:31instead what i got was a document
6:33written in 1844 by people some of whom
6:36became friends of abraham lincoln
6:38had much to do with his cause helped to
6:40shape his cause
6:41not an exaggeration
6:43and i just saw the magic in that in a
6:45heartbeat
6:47and i thought
6:48maybe one could run a college
6:52if it has a point
6:53to actually make it a real college
6:57and in the way things work especially in
6:59a college
7:01you can't be the point no one can be and
7:04the president least of all
7:06because everybody in college is smart if
7:08it's a good college and uh
7:10and colleges are forever rewriting their
7:13mission statements
7:15and they don't know enough about the
7:16meaning of the word principle to know
7:17that they're building a new college when
7:19they do that
7:20uh and so i knew better than that and we
7:23we all know better than that uh and so
7:25we
7:26decided just to focus on that original
7:29thing and that would be the thing one
7:31would obey
7:33to be a member of hillsdale college and
7:35the obedience would begin with me
7:37so that's how i got there and i've been
7:39there a long time now
7:41and it's gone pretty well
7:43i think that's an understatement now
7:45this was the year 2000 that you started
7:47at hillsdale college um
7:50you know i i've spoken to you know being
7:52on a college campus myself not too long
7:53ago talking to predecessor of mine who
7:55had led organizations that i was a part
7:57of
7:58you know there are things that they will
7:59say
8:01were always bad even when they were in
8:03college going back to the 90s and the
8:05things that have gotten a lot worse in
8:07the state of modern higher education
8:08what was the landscape at the time when
8:10you became president of hillsdale
8:12college was it
8:13as understood as it is now that modern
8:16american higher education is
8:17fundamentally broken
8:19well of course it was all terrible and
8:21now it's all great
8:22and that's because i'm so pretty
8:25no it was a good college it was uh as
8:28these things go it was
8:31well above average
8:32uh
8:34it it had its divisions uh it had a
8:37strong president uh
8:39he left in a scandal
8:42uh
8:43of course we don't know for sure today
8:45whether he did it or not but uh
8:47but he was successful and he was in many
8:50respects at least and probably in all a
8:51good man
8:53he'd also been
8:55unpopular
8:57uh divisive in some ways
8:59uh
9:01so you had all that right and it it went
9:04in some the college looked like a
9:05variety of different things but it
9:07looked some somewhat like the
9:08conservative movement too
9:10which is it had traditionalists and it
9:12had libertarians and
9:14it had christians and
9:17they didn't all see eye to eye
9:20and they were contending for
9:22mastery for influence for prominence
9:26and so that's what a college is these
9:29days except now of course it's
9:31woke
9:32and that that is so strong in many
9:35places now that that threatens to build
9:37a new form of unity in colleges that is
9:39oppressive
9:40and destructive of all human thought
9:43so anyway it was like that and it was
9:45you know pretty good it was you know it
9:47reached a lot of people which is very
9:49attractive to me reach it a lot more now
9:52and so
9:53uh
9:54yeah it was you know
9:56i remember a number uh 25 of my freshman
10:00class first year i was there
10:02left at the end of the freshman year
10:05and i was astonished to learn that that
10:06was actually a pretty good number
10:08because the national average today is
10:10around 40 percent
10:12but if 25 percent are
10:15actually leave
10:16it means that more than that are
10:18thinking about it
10:20and my favorite sport to this day is to
10:22eat lunch in the dining hall and torture
10:24the students
10:24[Laughter]
10:26because i i tell you if you want to come
10:28visit hillsdale michigan just find out
10:30weeks when i'm in town they're known
10:31months in advance
10:32and you can come with me to the dining
10:34hall and we will torture the students
10:36together
10:37and it's it's the greatest thing on
10:39earth it's fun
10:40but in the beginning it was kind of
10:42miserable
10:43because there were people at every table
10:46that were wish they hadn't come
10:49and felt betrayed
10:51and
10:52you know i would argue with them about
10:54the things they didn't like about the
10:55college and i'm an old man even then
10:59i could win those arguments
11:01but i could watch them in their eyes and
11:02see that they were not persuaded
11:05and so i
11:07began experimenting
11:09and i had a breakthrough one day
11:12a young man at dinner table we have all
11:14the seniors over to our house for dinner
11:16my wife is a saint
11:18and uh uh this young man
11:22ticked me off and i was tired i was worn
11:25out you know at the end of the year and
11:28i barked at him
11:30he said he he forgave me
11:33for doing things for the donors that the
11:36students didn't like
11:38so in other words he didn't understand
11:40what he was saying but what he was doing
11:41was calling me a mercenary
11:44and uh
11:45and i said
11:48what are you doing here
11:50i took him on you know and he sort of
11:52blinked because he was forgiving me
11:55it was a generous act
11:57you know
11:58and
11:59and
11:59i i went after him i said uh
12:06i said why did you even come here
12:09and he said i love the college i said
12:11what do you love about it
12:13i said you want me to implement the
12:15social policies of the university of
12:16michigan here
12:18why didn't you go there
12:20couldn't get in
12:22not a good enough long jumper he was a
12:23long jumper he's a very good long joke
12:25for athlete
12:26and and and i he was
12:28backing up and i said could you read
12:31when you came to hillsdale college
12:34and he said yes and i said did you
12:36and
12:37i just noticed
12:39i was routing him
12:41and then
12:42i didn't sleep that night i thought
12:45i have impeached his choice
12:49so the next morning we wrote the honor
12:51code
12:52and now to come to hillsdale college
12:54it's very hard to get into hillsdale
12:55college now
12:56you have to sign the honor cup
12:59and you have to sign on the dotted line
13:01and it's it's sent to you months in
13:03advance it's in the first communication
13:05we have with anybody student faculty
13:08staff friend anybody
13:10and that means you know what the college
13:11is about
13:13and you can't get away from it right i i
13:15have a i give a big lecture to the
13:18freshman class it's always fun big old
13:20auditorium full of
13:22400 kids
13:23and uh
13:25they
13:26and i threaten the daylights out of them
13:28actually we laugh a lot but i do
13:30threaten them too
13:31and i just say when you leave here
13:33you're going to sign this document
13:35you've had it for months
13:36or you can go home
13:38we'll help you find somewhere else to go
13:40to college never had anybody do that
13:42and that means
13:43everyone is a volunteer
13:46which is the correct form of human rule
13:50that's the only thing that really works
13:52and so
13:53now at hillsdale college we're happy
13:55because we chose this crazy thing
13:58and it's our own dank fault
14:00that's why it works
14:03obviously the rest of american higher
14:05education has only gotten worse as
14:07hillsdale college has has improved and
14:09improved dramatically and become really
14:11a titan today
14:13what is your diagnosis of the
14:15pathologies of the rest of american
14:18higher education what is it that they
14:20get so wrong at a fundamental level when
14:22it comes to what their duties should be
14:24to the country
14:25and to their students
14:27well the answer to that in my opinion is
14:30everything
14:31but it begins with the first thing
14:33for people to work together you know the
14:35word college means partnership
14:38i mean if you want to know what that
14:40means
14:41read the declaration of independence the
14:43greatest political establishment of a
14:45partnership in history
14:47and the basis of partnership is
14:50it has these purposes and we own it
14:53and we agree to serve these purposes
14:55that's how we can work together well if
14:58you discard that
15:00first of all you've taken a despotic
15:02step
15:03because now college is something we're
15:05going to do to them
15:07and education does not work that way
15:10the first line of aristotle's
15:11metaphysics is
15:13the human soul stretches itself out to
15:16know
15:17we love to know
15:18but the energy the effort in in knowing
15:22is in each one
15:23right you asked me about my story the
15:25first thing i did when we got in the car
15:27was ask you about your story right and
15:29you it's in you
15:31that has
15:33got you sitting right here
15:35some love
15:36has drawn you here and you told me uh
15:40you obviously have really good parents
15:42they wanted you to do something else
15:45but they probably had the grace to know
15:48well okay fine but
15:49i'm not the one who actually has to do
15:51that
15:53so i tell my kids i have four kids
15:56now a grandkid the most important being
15:58on earth congratulations and i said i
16:00always tell them
16:02you have to do something good
16:05because the only rule that anybody can
16:07remember is be good
16:09but how to be good
16:11you know the good is a definite thing
16:13and you can violate it and many people
16:15do
16:16but how it applies to you and the way
16:18the the way and mode in which you be
16:20good that's up to you
16:23so
16:24that's the key right you got it now if
16:28if if you
16:29teach that i happen to teach aristotle
16:32the greatest writer on that subject in
16:34history
16:37he's writing treatises about the
16:38dialogues that socrates that socrates
16:41taught plato aristotle's teacher
16:44and they're just it's just beautiful
16:47to know those things
16:49and and
16:51and so where do they go wrong
16:53uh if you start out by saying
16:56well they do they explicitly say this
16:58they say two things that are
16:59contradictory at once they say
17:01you can be
17:03anything you want to be
17:05can you can you be an aardvark
17:08it's uh you know
17:10don't rule it out these days
17:12but then the second thing is
17:15there's a way to be
17:17and it's not a rational thing it's not
17:20written in the laws of nature and
17:22nature's god
17:23it's
17:24the spirit of our age
17:26and the things that we've discovered
17:28just now
17:30now both of those
17:33don't invite the student to learn
17:37right because what's the most exciting
17:39thing to learn
17:42how you should be
17:44everybody wants to know that the first
17:46line of aristotle's ethics is every
17:48choice and every action and every art
17:50and remember them all
17:52and every inquiry
17:54those are all the voluntary things human
17:56beings do
17:57aims at some good and therefore has been
18:00beautifully said that the good is that
18:02for which all things aim
18:04if you read that sentence and you don't
18:06say ooh
18:07i gotta find out what this thing is
18:11then
18:11you're in sensate
18:13but if you're not in since that you go
18:15wow i gotta find out what this thing is
18:18so
18:19they've abandoned that now
18:22and it fragments
18:24because uh
18:27all of those doctrines they teach today
18:29make the individual human will
18:31[Music]
18:32the arbiter
18:33but of course that won't work because
18:36there are many wells
18:38which one gets to dominate and the
18:40answer now is really just the dominant
18:42one
18:43it's an exercise in power
18:45we think i mean republican and democrat
18:48not not by the way the last
18:50administration is better
18:52i mean there's of course it's very
18:53controversial about donald trump but
18:57in the end i i think he
19:00at least his education department betsy
19:02devos
19:03they understood
19:05that
19:06school
19:08is not like an engineering
19:10project it's more like
19:13nourishing a plant
19:15and it will grow into what it's meant to
19:17be
19:18and the growth is in it
19:21it has a soul
19:22and so if we forget that then this
19:26effort to engineer
19:28everything into something different
19:31is bound to produce nothing but friction
19:35and that's what they have and they they
19:36they have no common project
19:39except to work upon each other which is
19:41radically not a common project
19:44so that's what's wrong i think and it
19:45means that
19:47in the basic operations
19:50they don't they don't understand you
19:51know my favorite way of putting it is
19:54everybody needs to be a volunteer
19:57you know i i believe if you hire
19:58somebody i have i've hired many people
20:03i've hired 150 faculty members in 21
20:06years and i've interviewed three
20:07candidates for every one of those
20:09positions because i want to know them
20:11and i always want to know one thing
20:14and i don't easily ask it in these terms
20:15but it's always easy to find out
20:18what do you love
20:20what is the thing that moves you
20:22what is the thing you ask me that right
20:24what is the thing that brought us in
20:26this room
20:27we've discovered that it's a similar
20:29thing in each of our cases right
20:32in fact in the way that it's similar
20:35it's common to every human being
20:37and so you want to find out
20:40what you know
20:43if you ask them what do you want they'll
20:44sometimes say i want this job
20:48and then say why
20:50and if they say because it pays money
20:52they never say that
20:54but if they did say that you'd say yeah
20:56there's a lot of ways to make money why
20:58this way
20:59right
21:00and if you find out
21:02that they love
21:04the thing that the college does
21:07not the thing i do i'm one of them
21:09the college does
21:12and and the part in it that they're
21:14applying for
21:15then
21:16hire that person and you'll never have
21:18to watch them
21:20that
21:21posture towards education one that
21:24operates off of a term that
21:26to moderate years can sound silly but i
21:28entirely resonate with it you know
21:30unadulterated love
21:32that is not the bedrock of the american
21:34education system right now to put it
21:36lightly um specifically with higher
21:39education do i think this could apply
21:41to even
21:42you know secondary education in some
21:43ways it's it's a credential it's a check
21:45mark that you know
21:47basically we've turned it into a ticket
21:49to the middle class in the united states
21:51that in order
21:52uh to to succeed in order to provide for
21:55your family in order to to have a job
21:58that pays enough to to feed them
22:01you must go
22:03to this four-year campus where you will
22:06learn not very much at all
22:08but you'll walk out with a piece of
22:09paper that says you are a citizen in
22:11good standing i guess
22:13um
22:14baked into that is a is a is a
22:17universality i think that the idea that
22:20every american needs a four-year college
22:23education
22:25along the lines of you know the way that
22:27most people who go to college are
22:28educated
22:30is that part of the problem the idea
22:32that that everyone should be learning
22:34this way for this long
22:36in that setting i mean how how many
22:39americans do you think in any given year
22:40should be
22:42pursuing an education like the one that
22:43you guys provide at hillsdale college
22:46well there's no doubt there's too many
22:48uh
22:50because of this propaganda this argument
22:52that prevails that you got to go to
22:54college
22:55but also
22:56college is extremely heavily subsidized
22:59now now it's extremely heavily
23:01subsidized at hillsdale college too we
23:03spend a fortune on these kids and
23:05they pay a pittance
23:07it's just that they owe us becoming
23:09great human beings
23:11and we
23:12and we say just remember if you don't do
23:14that i can have you killed
23:15[Laughter]
23:17yeah they
23:18but you know we're pouring money into it
23:21but just remember the bad thing and this
23:23is a bipartisan thing
23:27we think of it as what we're going to
23:29make them into
23:32uh republicans think
23:34we're going to make them successful and
23:36successful means
23:39getting a job and contributing to the
23:40national power
23:43and
23:43democrats
23:45they actually have a different kind of
23:47ambition mostly the left anyway not
23:49democrats the left
23:52they think
23:53we're going to make them proper citizens
23:56in the new kind of society we're
23:57building
23:59which has a lot to do with their
24:00learning to be compliant
24:02to the many rules that are coming
24:05well both of those are wrong-headed
24:08because both of those forget
24:10that the movement to know
24:12is inside the human soul
24:15and and
24:17uh it it flourishes
24:20when it learns the things it needs to
24:22know
24:23and it has to learn them i mean i i it's
24:26been a very great experience for me to
24:28be a college professor because i never
24:30was regularly before i became a college
24:32president
24:33but i teach every term and i really like
24:35it and what do you learn
24:38you learn about human nature
24:40because if you just stand there and tell
24:42them all the stuff you know
24:43it makes them yawn if you ask them
24:47and then disagree with what they say
24:50now we're all about to start learning
24:52me too
24:53so that's the thing and that means it's
24:56just radically true
24:59you know the latin word for soul is
25:02enema
25:03like animal like animation
25:07it it the definition of soul the the uh
25:10greek word is su-k from which we get
25:12psychology
25:14the definition of a soul
25:16is the
25:18unmoved thing
25:20that makes a being move
25:23within the thing
25:25the source of its motion
25:27and anything that has its motion inside
25:30itself has a soul a bird
25:33even a tree
25:34but
25:36we have a rational soul
25:38and that means
25:40we have a huge part in deciding how to
25:43move
25:44well
25:45if you recognize that about people
25:48then informing them helping them learn
25:51inform right give them a form
25:55except they have a form
25:56and
25:57they have to they have to assume that
25:59form
26:00and the energy do it is in them well
26:02they they don't have that right in
26:04colleges and
26:05that's an another reason why we don't
26:07know much anymore we don't know history
26:10we don't know philosophy we know uh
26:13cheap social media philosophy
26:17students don't get to sit down
26:20with a great book
26:22and
26:23adore it
26:25and
26:26and meditate upon it
26:28right and they're not even encouraged to
26:30do that
26:31uh so
26:33that's what's wrong and and uh and see
26:36that's a
26:37you know it's a profound truth
26:40that
26:42education is what we say to the future
26:45and so what we do in education is an
26:47expression of what we think
26:50and education today is under the
26:52domination of one part of the society
26:55the ruling class you might call it
26:58and that's you know that's how they got
26:59to be that way they went into education
27:01they got an education they took on all
27:03the jobs that
27:05that
27:06chatter and teach and
27:08talk
27:11well they run all that now
27:13and they have altered it in ways that i
27:15think are disastrous
27:17and the failures are manifest everywhere
27:20you look
27:22so
27:23that's what's wrong
27:25you mentioned the aversion
27:28that republicans will say about
27:30education they just want you to be
27:31successful i mean you know there's been
27:33this this meme afoot for 15 to 20 years
27:36that you know you're going to college to
27:38study philosophy that's not that's not a
27:40real degree what what job are you going
27:43to get with that that i think that there
27:45are
27:46errors in the assessment of education on
27:49on both right and left on and what it
27:51should be for what would you say to
27:52people who say that a philosophy degree
27:54or a history degree is no different than
27:56a gender studies degree it's not going
27:58to get you your job
28:00what's your answer to that
28:02well
28:03uh philosophy right that means the love
28:05of wisdom greek word for wisdom is
28:08sophos
28:09uh greek word for love philos
28:12philanthropy you know that comes from
28:14that
28:16who doesn't want to be wise
28:19right what was the virtue of king
28:20solomon
28:22uh
28:23he was wise until by the way later in
28:25his life he wasn't wise anymore
28:28uh so everybody wants that right whereas
28:32not everybody wants to be a plumber
28:36although being a plumber is a fine thing
28:37to be
28:39the things that you do for a living
28:42they are instruments the things you know
28:45that are the best things to know they
28:47are ends
28:48and and so
28:50and the point is
28:52everybody i i don't think everybody
28:54should go to college but i think
28:56everybody should get an excellent
28:58elementary and secondary education and
29:01everybody can
29:03we have at the college we started now 20
29:06charter schools
29:07much more coming i think
29:09and after they get about five years old
29:12they just become wonders they're pretty
29:13good right at the start
29:15and that's because
29:17there's the adventure of fundamental
29:19learning
29:21and everybody
29:22you know they have their hand up all the
29:25time and they're wiggling with
29:27excitement in the classroom because
29:29school is fun
29:32right
29:32but it has to
29:34possess you
29:36by helping you become what you're meant
29:38to be
29:38yeah tell me about the the primary and
29:41secondary education aspects of what
29:43hillsdale college is doing because you
29:45guys have started to branch out into it
29:47you now have a curriculum that you've
29:48released as well um
29:52we we understand what the errors in
29:54modern american higher education are
29:56what what are the the
29:57errors in our primary and secondary
29:59education in the 50 states
30:02well
30:04it's a national goal last time i looked
30:06to teach
30:07every child to read by the end of the
30:08third grade
30:10we've never graduated a kindergartner
30:12who couldn't read
30:15and the reason is
30:17they can already read
30:20we have a new granddaughter in my family
30:23and she's the most important being ever
30:25born
30:27grandpa's it turns out they're they're
30:28crazy
30:30and i'm the craziest of them well i'm
30:32watching her she's nine months old
30:34and she's already learning to talk
30:37and you can't really teach her to talk
30:39because it we don't have words in common
30:41yet
30:42she's learning to
30:44use her voice and her
30:46body
30:47to make sounds in the way we do
30:50and that's because
30:52she knows that we're the same kind of
30:54thing already
30:56that means the dawn of reason is in her
30:58already
31:00and by age two she'll be talking
31:03and by age two and two months
31:06she'll know everything in the world
31:08she doesn't even have to leave the house
31:09to know the continents and the
31:11animals and the
31:13oceans and everything right
31:16so she that's a magic
31:20every human being does it
31:22very few who are impaired don't do it
31:23but that's not many
31:25uh
31:26so reading is just the same thing
31:29it's one step less natural because what
31:32little charlotte does
31:34the squeak we call her
31:36is uh because her mother likes that name
31:38uh
31:40what she's doing is
31:42she's hearing us and watching us and
31:44she's getting immediate instruction back
31:48about
31:49our reaction to her
31:51when you're reading you don't have that
31:54it's not talking to you
31:56so
31:58shut up
31:59so um
32:03what you do to teach them to read is
32:05phonics
32:06they already know the sounds that go
32:08with the abstractions that are common
32:10nouns which is a miracle that we can use
32:11them
32:13uh and so you just teach them to sound
32:15out the word
32:17and you know
32:18uh
32:19you know i can't do phonics very well
32:20it's too long ago for me but
32:22eventually they'll they'll just learn
32:24that the c sounds like this and the
32:26followed by the vowel followed by
32:28another kind
32:29cow
32:31cow
32:32they know what that is
32:34and and
32:36next thing you know they're reading it
32:38it actually doesn't take more than six
32:39months
32:40and uh in my you know in most cases
32:43almost all cases
32:45and the ones almost all of the remainder
32:47cases
32:48it takes nine months and some more
32:51training in phonics
32:53so
32:55that that's what's wrong see
32:57we we don't understand that nature is at
33:01work
33:02it is just like raising a plant
33:06after you realize the one change and
33:08that is this plant has a will of its own
33:12it is an agent
33:13in its own becoming
33:15but its own becoming follows pathways
33:19that are of growth and development that
33:22are just like the pathways for the plant
33:25or the puppy dog we got a new puppy in
33:27our house too
33:28so
33:29if if you could step back
33:33and look at the students
33:36then
33:37you could unleash them to do what they
33:40want to do
33:41long to do right
33:43uh the greatest teacher in america that
33:46i can name off the top of my head is
33:47doubtless you know i got a lot of really
33:49we we have a lot of really great
33:50teachers at hillsdale college but
33:53there's this kindergarten teacher that
33:54i'm in love with
33:56she's in leander texas i've made her
33:59into a tourist attraction
34:01i talk to her all the time people go and
34:03sit in her class right
34:04well kindergarten right her name is mrs
34:07rarden
34:08and uh
34:10so the first time i went in there i
34:12remember i remember what she i'll never
34:13forget what she was teaching
34:15and if i were five years old
34:17i will also would also never forget it
34:20so she comes in and she's
34:23uh stack your blocks
34:25and what that means is you do this
34:28and that makes you sit up straight nice
34:30then she said they all do it right
34:33and then she says
34:35today
34:37the second grade
34:39those mighty old older beings across the
34:41hall
34:42are coming over for punch and cookies
34:46and so we have to learn a word
34:50you know and they'll go
34:52ah
34:53a word you see
34:54and and she starts spelling the word
34:57and the word she spelled c a p and you
35:00know they're just
35:01trembling with excitement these little
35:03wigglers you know and she's and the word
35:05is capacity
35:07we have to learn capacity
35:10and 20 minutes later
35:12every one of those kids knows what that
35:14is and it had and it's had an adventure
35:17you see
35:18and they're they're made for that
35:21uh
35:22the human soul stretches itself out to
35:24know
35:25so that's and that's how you do it and
35:29doing it
35:30i mean
35:32i'll give you a counter example
35:35so i've seen several times now i've seen
35:38a
35:39a lesson plan daily what you do on a day
35:44under the common core
35:46and what's it like first of all
35:49it's it's on the front and back of a
35:51piece of paper
35:53sometimes just the front
35:55and there's a paragraph at the beginning
35:58and the teacher is to read the paragraph
36:01right so
36:03the teacher is now only somebody who can
36:05read
36:06well second graders can read yeah that's
36:08right
36:09you know
36:10kindergartners can read so it uh so
36:13then
36:14an instruction you read this paragraph
36:17and then you
36:18get them to get out this material and
36:20then you get them to break down you
36:21break them down into groups and you get
36:23them to discuss
36:25and then at the end of the class and
36:27they they're minutes marked how many
36:29minutes and then you do this next thing
36:31and at the end of the class
36:32they come back and they report on what
36:34they've decided
36:36and then there's a paragraph for the
36:38teacher to read at the end right it's
36:40all prescribed
36:42and and
36:44what about
36:45somebody who knows and loves a beautiful
36:48book or a beautiful mathematical
36:51operation or a beautiful phenomenon in
36:54nature
36:55you told me before you love that thing
36:58it's miracle he's actually levitating
36:59that bulb
37:03so
37:04what about
37:05the fact that they are naturally
37:07attracted to things like that
37:10and what about the teacher
37:12someone a source of wisdom about that
37:16and that's
37:17and and see that empowers that
37:20methodology
37:21that empowers
37:23somebody
37:24far away from the classroom who will
37:26never meet the students or their parents
37:30and who gets to control all those
37:32classrooms by writing that piece of
37:34paper
37:35it's despotic
37:36and there's nothing left
37:38you know my father was a schoolteacher
37:40in pocahontas arkansas
37:42he's the first one in our family to go
37:44to college on either side
37:47for some reason he was determined to do
37:48it when he was a little boy
37:51and he
37:52he he found his happiness when he became
37:54a school teacher he never made any money
37:57he was an important man in our town
38:00and because he was a good teacher
38:04and so
38:05that's a dignity right and if it's all
38:08prescribed by rule
38:10from a central place
38:12there's no no room for any place anybody
38:14to live what are they going to do then
38:17if all of this is like this
38:20there's two uh adjectives people would
38:24use to describe the vision of education
38:26that
38:28hillsdale represents and and even the
38:30the charter schools and and the
38:32curriculum that you put out one is
38:34conservative
38:35and another is christian
38:38um often they're using those terms
38:40pejoratively or in a reductive way to
38:42say all this is a christian conservative
38:44education
38:46what do you make of those adjectives and
38:47what do they mean
38:49uh to to hillsdale's mission or are they
38:51even accurate
38:53uh one of them is accurate uh hillsdale
38:56college has four purposes and they are
38:59learning faith freedom and character
39:02and those are
39:04specific
39:05terms that mean
39:07the four fundamentals of
39:09an excellent human life now christianity
39:12is proper because christianity is the
39:13religion that
39:15is open to learning
39:20jesus is the word
39:22he invites you to hear and think and
39:25read
39:26right so
39:27and you know there's lots of things
39:31uh
39:32that
39:33uh
39:34you can only know by faith but there's a
39:37lot of things including by
39:39about god that you can know by thinking
39:41about it
39:42and there are some things that might say
39:44that certainly there are many things
39:46that contradict the stories of the bible
39:49and that provides food for thought
39:52right we need to understand those
39:54stories like the genesis account there's
39:56more than one account of creation in
39:58genesis there too
40:00but uh
40:01one of them
40:03seems to be saying that the sky is blue
40:05because there's water up there
40:07well we appear to know that there's not
40:10so what do you make of that does that
40:12mean there's no god does that mean the
40:14bible is a lie
40:16well you have to think about that
40:18and
40:18you know come to find out it doesn't
40:20mean either of those two things in my
40:22opinion that's in the academic world
40:26that's a thing explored through
40:28discussion and argument
40:30and thought
40:32so that's what christian means uh
40:39conservative that's interesting i didn't
40:41name conservative in one of those four
40:43things because conservative is a is a
40:45very interesting term
40:47it's a derivative term
40:50it points to something right
40:53it means an inclination to conserve
40:56things
40:57i guess
40:58but which things
41:00because there's a lot of old things that
41:02would be better if they'd never happened
41:04you know murder is an example
41:07uh
41:08so
41:10uh also another thing
41:13the sources
41:15of the western tradition we refer we
41:18refer to it as
41:21it's like studying america it didn't
41:23begin in a tradition
41:25it began in a revolution
41:27first in first in jerusalem
41:29this idea of just one god
41:32that was a radical idea that changed
41:35everything
41:36and it was a break from the past
41:38as humans had understood things
41:41uh
41:44athens
41:45socrates is a very radical guy
41:48and just as the jewish faith first and
41:51then the christian faith were born
41:53on the claim unprecedented claim
41:55that there's one god eternal and
41:58almighty for every human being
42:01so in athens socrates began to ask the
42:04question
42:05what is the good
42:07and not what does athens say the good is
42:11what is it simply what does it mean
42:14you just love to say tsd is the greek
42:17what is that thing
42:19let's define it let's figure it out
42:21right and that's
42:23a revolutionary thing indeed he was
42:26executed by athens
42:27for that
42:29so
42:31uh
42:31conservative now
42:33my understanding of
42:35my way of being a conservative i am one
42:38is
42:39i think that uh
42:42the good is the first and last question
42:44in philosophy
42:45and the answer in classical philosophy
42:47and in christianity is the ultimate good
42:50is god the only perfect being now they
42:52mean different things by god and that's
42:54a puzzle you gotta think about that
42:57um
42:59so
43:00but
43:01but uh
43:02uh
43:05to explore
43:06oh
43:07so a thing
43:09for which there's been
43:11and see these are a bunch of qualifiers
43:12right
43:14the things that are worth conserving the
43:16most
43:17are things that have been claimed on
43:19strong arguments
43:21first of all to know that they've been
43:23claimed for a long time you have to know
43:24some history to know that the arguments
43:27are strong you have to know
43:30what makes a strong argument and what
43:31these arguments are
43:33but things that have been so claimed for
43:36a long time
43:37have a special claim
43:39to our attention and understanding
43:42and uprooting those things
43:44systematically
43:46is wiping out the achievements of the
43:48past upon which we depend by the way
43:52so
43:53i'm a conservative in that sense and uh
43:56the college is conservative in exactly
43:58that sense
43:59uh but and and you have to so
44:03education at hillsdale starts with the
44:05classics
44:06uh education and mathematics starts with
44:08euclid
44:10uh education and philosophy starts with
44:14plato and aristotle
44:16education in
44:17in theology starts with
44:21the jewish bible
44:23the earliest universal religion
44:26and proceeds through
44:28the birth of christianity and the early
44:30church fathers into the medievals
44:33and the moderns
44:34and also islam we read that
44:37um
44:38we're a christian college we're not an
44:40islamic college but
44:42islam which is 600 years 650 years
44:45younger than christianity
44:47is an interesting thing and it's a
44:48powerful thing you should know about it
44:51so
44:52and and the thing is
44:54the tradition then
44:55is a guide
44:57but the fact that a thing is tradition
44:59traditional doesn't supply any final
45:01answers
45:02which is
45:04the western tradition to think that
45:10the
45:11criticisms that come to hillsdale
45:13college are are so often i think
45:16it's people who don't really know
45:17anything about about what actually
45:18happens the college i've had the
45:19privilege of knowing a lot of students
45:20over the years um you know people will
45:23accuse the institution of just you know
45:26being a sort of right wing front
45:27whatever that means or you know
45:29republican uh you know training around
45:31just i've heard all sorts of ridiculous
45:33things but
45:34i do think it is interesting that in an
45:36era where every major institution in
45:38american life has seemed to drift
45:41leftward towards wokeness or whatever we
45:45want to call it
45:46it appears uh at least in the last 20 to
45:4930 years that that hillsdale has become
45:51more self-consciously not that
45:54i wouldn't say more conservative based
45:56on the definition you just laid out of
45:58what that means although if if we're
45:59using your definition it seems like
46:00under your leadership there that
46:03placing primary the best of what
46:05tradition has to offer has has only
46:07grown um
46:10how do you see your role and the the
46:13role of
46:14the leadership at hillsdale
46:17in preventing that same institutional
46:20drift
46:21that has befallen every major
46:23corporation every major college uh
46:26sectors of government every institution
46:28of import and american life
46:30uh well that is my specific job
46:33along with the board of trustees and uh
46:37i i can only conceive one way and i
46:39think it's the way
46:41that human affairs have always worked
46:44our college was very fortunate it was
46:46founded by a bunch of
46:49classically educated greek and latin
46:52speaking
46:54patriotic christian pastors
46:58awesome adjectives all the way down oh
47:00yeah yeah
47:01and and they understood those things as
47:03an integrity is fitting together and so
47:05they started with a great history right
47:07away they were a big force in the civil
47:09war we were abolitionist colleagues you
47:12know there we owned four congressional
47:13medal of honors in in the civil war
47:17we had more young men fight for the
47:19union army
47:21than any non-military college except
47:23yale which was a hotbed of union
47:26abolitionism but older and larger than
47:29we
47:30so pound for pound we had the most
47:33and then the platform that abraham
47:36lincoln which is one of the most
47:37beautiful political acts in human
47:39history
47:40he was elected on a platform that had
47:42discovered the constitutional way to
47:44eliminate slavery
47:46by forbidding it to spread into the
47:47territories that was thought up on our
47:50campus
47:51by faculty members who became the
47:53governor and lieutenant governor of
47:54michigan during the war
47:56sent the troops
47:58from michigan to fight and civil and we
48:00had
48:01a huge number
48:02in the peach orchard on the second day
48:05of gettysburg and if they hadn't been
48:07there that battle might have gone
48:08differently
48:09so
48:10i'm proud of all that
48:12and also it is the being of the college
48:16because think of the word principle
48:18it it means first
48:21but to be first in a series
48:23it has to also mean essential
48:26because the things that come later that
48:28fit in the series have the same essence
48:31and so
48:32the first thing in the college
48:34is the essence of the college
48:36and so and and you know we don't we
48:39don't demand that anybody
48:41agree with all of that even after you're
48:44admitted to the college
48:46you just have to agree that the college
48:48has a right to pursue its aims
48:51college has always been a private
48:52institution it's always been a voluntary
48:55institution
48:56and so like when you come to the college
48:59you subscribe to a bunch of stuff the
49:01honor code right
49:03but we openly acknowledge you don't
49:05really know what all that means yet
49:07you just have to agree that we have the
49:09right to set up the college to pursue
49:11this
49:12and while you're here you have to agree
49:14to help it
49:15which may include arguing with
49:18everything
49:19as long as you don't obstruct
49:21uh
49:22so that's the way it works and
49:24and because we start with that beginning
49:27thing and that means by the way
49:29we're not living our lives in reaction
49:32to the latest things
49:34we're living our lives
49:36in service to the original thing
49:39which opens up the field for us to talk
49:41about and think about all of these
49:44latest things right which in my opinion
49:46are dangerous but heck
49:48if you read the great books
49:50you will discover that they don't all
49:52agree with each other
49:54they invite you into a conversation
49:56if you get into that conversation you'll
49:58be much better equipped to analyze these
50:00things that are going on now which
50:03you know i'll just criticize them for a
50:04minute
50:05i think the woke movement is the
50:08destruction of human reason which means
50:11the destruction of humanity
50:14and i think it will wipe it out
50:17as a first step it wipes it out in
50:19principle
50:20but it will wipe it out eventually in in
50:23fact
50:25so i think that that's an argument
50:28you know somebody might not agree with
50:30that okay what do you think you know
50:33that's what you do in a college
50:36zooming out to
50:38american society more broadly there
50:40there is only one hillsdale there's a
50:42couple colleges that i think do many
50:44things well as well but but it's very
50:46few
50:47um and there are only sounds like 20 or
50:49so more to come of the charter schools
50:51that you guys have created as well
50:54what is a
50:56you know ordinary patriotic citizen to
50:58do
51:00when
51:00there is only one um and how
51:04do you and and the team at hillsdale
51:07conceive of
51:08of your role in that ecosystem is it to
51:11be a kind of a refuge and a monastery
51:13for true intellectual thought
51:15or do you have more imperial ambitions
51:18should should every college after they
51:19eventually collapse uh you know come to
51:22look at the hillsdale model i mean
51:24what is the
51:26because this is i think goes to a deeper
51:28question that i think underlies a lot of
51:30introducing conservative debates is is
51:32do we do we exit and rebuild on our own
51:36turf or do we go out into the world uh
51:40and fight the battles in those
51:41institutions right now
51:44how do you resolve that tension
51:46well that's a
51:48prudential question right so you know
51:50when i'm in my aggressive mode which
51:53i fear is all too common
51:55i will say uh we're in the world
51:57conquest business and our method our
51:59weapon is teaching
52:01so we want to teach everybody who wants
52:03to learn we always you know we made a
52:06strategic resolution some years ago just
52:09under pressure of demand
52:11that we're going to try to find a way to
52:12teach everyone who wants to learn with
52:14us
52:15and so we do that right we have three
52:17million people taking online courses
52:20i've just agreed with the governor of
52:21state to attempt to open 50 charter
52:24schools in six years in that state
52:26and that's hard right because
52:29you can't find classically educated
52:31teachers insufficient numbers to staff
52:33them
52:34but we think is true and we're having
52:36some success by approaching it this way
52:39you have to find 50 great headmasters
52:43people who understand what classical
52:45education is and have the talent lead to
52:47school
52:48and then there's lots of disaffected
52:50excellent teachers in public education
52:52who love to teach in a better setting
52:54and what they need to learn from just
52:56being a really good teacher to being a
52:58classical teacher is not fundamentally
53:01different
53:02so maybe it can grow that fast and we're
53:04certainly going to try
53:06and you know the month doesn't go by
53:08that somebody doesn't offer us a college
53:10and
53:12we are going to build some education
53:14centers around the country
53:16where people you know we own one in
53:18summers connecticut right now has an
53:21exact replica of monticello on it wow
53:23and we're going to have seminars there
53:25and we we have a million people
53:29on our mailing list that live within a
53:3190-minute drive of that place
53:33probably soon to be one in california
53:35too
53:36we're looking at tennessee
53:39uh so the college is growing and it will
53:41grow as fast as
53:43we can help it to grow and you know just
53:46remember
53:49we don't raise money
53:51people give it
53:53and uh and if you don't if you don't
53:56forget that
53:58you might be financially successful
54:00because the other alternative temps you
54:02away from what you're really supposed to
54:04be doing
54:06all you really do if you're running a
54:07non-profit is just show people what
54:09you're doing and try to make sure it's
54:11beautiful
54:12because then they'll like it
54:14uh yeah so i i think the college has
54:16been growing very fast and i think that
54:18will continue
54:19and i think there's a service in that
54:21because
54:23we have built a community
54:25of
54:26almost it's about 200 faculty members
54:28now
54:29and you know
54:311700 students at a time
54:34and we've started some graduate schools
54:36and we're going to start some more but
54:38also
54:39remember it's not our model of the world
54:42that we have to do everything
54:44others
54:46can do
54:47and find their own way to do
54:50it's very hard to get into the college
54:52business now because
54:54it takes a pile of money
54:56and that's partly because the market is
54:58grossly distorted by the fact that most
55:00of the money comes from the government
55:03so if you don't take that money which we
55:04don't you get some latitude
55:07but you're competing with that money all
55:09the time
55:10well maybe that'll sort itself out and
55:12there are some really rich people
55:15and that they have to understand though
55:18that uh
55:21rome wasn't built in a day
55:23and neither will a college be
55:26right it takes time people have to learn
55:28to work together they have to get in the
55:30habit of learning from each other
55:32they have to practice service to the
55:34mission
55:36amidst real events
55:38and that you know we find for example
55:40that uh
55:41it takes five or six
55:44years for a charter school
55:46to become something approximating
55:48excellent
55:49we think they can get pretty good pretty
55:51quick
55:52but there's just so much to learn and so
55:55many habits and practices
55:57to adopt and implement
56:01so this is not going to be turned around
56:02tomorrow
56:04but back up a step
56:06uh
56:08if you want to save the world it
56:10actually is true that the fastest way is
56:12teaching and that's because
56:15every time
56:16you are successful in learning with
56:19someone
56:20you have made not another soldier
56:23you've made another officer
56:26and so that's you know i i think that
56:29either
56:31there's going to be
56:32a terrible tragic fall in the united
56:35states which is possible
56:37or in fact what's much more likely is
56:40there going to be a wonderful revival
56:42of times of kind that we've had
56:44sometimes in the past
56:46and you know
56:48the love of learning and the love of
56:51perfection you know which we cannot be
56:54the love of excellence
56:57those are all things that undergird
56:59civilization and our love for those
57:01things are natural
57:02so they're not going to go away
57:06as a final question
57:07what do you think the greatest threat
57:10facing the country is right now
57:13um
57:14i find that i'm particularly interested
57:16in your perspective because in some ways
57:18i think
57:18uh hillsdale being where it is in in
57:21michigan
57:22and being in the business you are where
57:24you get to you get to build a better
57:26country piece by piece um you have a
57:29slightly different perspective and maybe
57:30people who spend all their time in this
57:31town in washington dc or or even your
57:33former peers at the claremont institute
57:35the ones that are left in california
57:37they have a slightly different perhaps
57:39more apocalyptic perspective of how bad
57:41things are i tend to agree with them
57:43what do you make of what the greatest
57:45threat we face is
57:47well it's uh
57:50you know there's
57:51in the classic thought there's four
57:53kinds of causes
57:55and there's material causes what things
57:57are made out of there's efficient causes
57:59who does what why no there's formal
58:02causes what things look like what shape
58:04they take
58:05and there's final causes
58:07and the final cause is the commanding
58:09costs
58:10and that's what we love that's the thing
58:12that moves us right
58:14and there's
58:15a fierce competition in america
58:18between two alternative final causes and
58:22they're incompatible with each other
58:24we're living in a house divided
58:27and the one that i don't share i think
58:29is the most powerful and dangerous evil
58:32in the world
58:34and actually a kind of sum of evil
58:36and it's attractive in the way that
58:39powerful evils always are
58:41it appeals to some good things in us too
58:44like perfection like nobody
58:47you know
58:49uh nobody left behind
58:51you know
58:52uh
58:54so and and those are all good things and
58:57those are things that should be pursued
58:59but it's also true that we're not going
59:01to perfect this world but we could make
59:04it into something like hell
59:06so that's the most dangerous thing
59:09are we going to abandon
59:11what lincoln called the ancient faith of
59:14the american people
59:15because if we do we're going to live in
59:17a despotism and that is the worst
59:19possible way to live
59:21dr arn thank you for taking time out of
59:24your busy schedule to come take the show
59:26with us today um
59:28i i feel almost silly asking the
59:30question but but where should people go
59:31if they're inspired by the things you
59:33said today obviously hillsdale's website
59:35is there anything else they should keep
59:36their eyes out for
59:38well i'm i
59:40i'm
59:41trying to convert everybody into a
59:42teacher yeah right so
59:44i i tell the graduates feels like
59:46college
59:47you don't just get to be a school
59:49teacher
59:50you're going to do that that's very
59:51honorable you're going to have to leave
59:53leave a school
59:55you've gone to too much trouble coming
59:57to this difficult college
59:59so what people should do
1:00:00is they should resolve today
1:00:03uh you can start with an online course
1:00:06you know
1:00:07the two
1:00:08best ones in my opinion and one of just
1:00:11a simple partisan point
1:00:12the constitution course is the most
1:00:16popular one and that's you know
1:00:19hundreds of thousands of people i think
1:00:20more than a million now have taken that
1:00:22course
1:00:24uh and then of course after that
1:00:26aristotle's ethics which i happen to
1:00:27teach
1:00:28and which is my favorite book
1:00:31but if you start there
1:00:33you will see
1:00:35a world of learning opening up
1:00:38and you should pursue that world of
1:00:40learning and as you learn you should
1:00:43teach
1:00:44you should befriend people who are also
1:00:46interested in that and recruit people to
1:00:49be interested in that
1:00:50you should build a community around that
1:00:54you know these
1:00:5520 charter schools we got now and i
1:00:57think they're going to be a lot more
1:00:59those are communities
1:01:01for the parents too
1:01:02and the parents learn
1:01:04see
1:01:05my daughter ran one of them uh the
1:01:08mother of my grandmother granddaughter
1:01:10so she's really great right now um
1:01:14and
1:01:15she said to me once well dad you know
1:01:17i'm a young woman
1:01:19they treat me sort of like a servant
1:01:22and you know she's in her second week
1:01:24first time she'd ever run anything in
1:01:26her life and she's founded a school
1:01:29and i said well that'll stop
1:01:32and she said uh how will it stop i said
1:01:34well
1:01:36they're gonna come to an assembly the
1:01:38parents
1:01:39i think you might have written your
1:01:40doctoral thesis on aristotle am i
1:01:42remembering that right she said yeah and
1:01:44i said then
1:01:45you're going to tell them
1:01:47what you're going to help their children
1:01:49become
1:01:51and they're going to sit open-mouthed
1:01:54and she said
1:01:56how will i get them together and i said
1:01:57silly goose
1:01:58you have their children just ask them
1:02:03about them about a month later she came
1:02:05up and said boy that worked
1:02:09yeah that's the future is that if it's
1:02:11going to be a good future
1:02:12we are all going to learn and teach and
1:02:16recover the elements of civilization and
1:02:19learn again to live in light of them
1:02:22well
1:02:23uh if that happens it will be with
1:02:25hillsdale's leadership and your
1:02:26leadership thank you for everything you
1:02:28do dr arnan thank you for being on the
1:02:30show honored to be on your show
1:02:33[Music]
1:02:54what an incredible treat to hear from dr
1:02:56arne today uh for this uh episode of the
1:02:59podcast i wanted to recommend that you
1:03:00guys actually go
1:03:02listen to something that dr arn
1:03:04mentioned on the show which is the
1:03:05constitution 101 lecture series the
1:03:07hillsdale colleges put out
1:03:09look i know a lot of you are young
1:03:11you're like hard chargers
1:03:13and you think that most of the
1:03:15institutional conservative movement has
1:03:16failed us who cares about the
1:03:17constitution whatever
1:03:19i will say we've put the constitution
1:03:21101 lecture series on am canon for a
1:03:23reason um it is a truly enriching
1:03:26experience and i think you'll learn
1:03:27something new that you otherwise may not
1:03:30have i'm still finding my way through it
1:03:31but jake uh has gone through quite a bit
1:03:34of it i think and and he highly
1:03:35recommends it as well so please go check
1:03:37that out please go check out the rest of
1:03:39what hillsdale college does
1:03:40look at the end of the day um
1:03:43if you're a supporter of
1:03:45the american people the united states
1:03:47the american nation
1:03:48it is important to not just throw away
1:03:51everything that has come before in
1:03:52service of this new revolutionary great
1:03:54society we're gonna make you have to
1:03:56look at what came before the founders
1:03:58and their generation were young people
1:03:59like many of you
1:04:01who created a political document and a
1:04:03civilization
1:04:05that has endured longer than most it is
1:04:08somewhat unusual that a civilization is
1:04:10able to endure for more than 250 years
1:04:12and so
1:04:13looking at the writings of the founders
1:04:15looking specifically at what infused and
1:04:18uh and permeated their theory of
1:04:20governance in the constitution of the
1:04:21united states is always a worthwhile
1:04:23exercise um i got to do it quite a bit
1:04:25this summer when i was a publius fellow
1:04:27with the claremont institute going
1:04:29through the founders uh constitution and
1:04:31and understanding what they tried to do
1:04:33in creating this political document look
1:04:35i'll put cards on the table here
1:04:37i will always have a reflexive and
1:04:40pre-rational streak of pro-americanism
1:04:43in me because i'm a naturalized citizen
1:04:45like frankly if i want to live in a you
1:04:47know perfect monarchy or whatever i
1:04:49should leave i don't intend on doing so
1:04:51and i don't intend on turning my back on
1:04:52the constitution or the declaration so
1:04:54highly recommend you guys go check out
1:04:56the constitution 101 series
1:04:58if you have kids consider sending them
1:04:59to hillsdale college
1:05:01and i would also
1:05:02heavily encourage you guys to go to
1:05:04americanmoment.org where you can find
1:05:05this piece and many others go find out
1:05:08the rest of what we have going we have
1:05:09uh big events coming up in washington i
1:05:12highly recommend that you guys come and
1:05:14join us for those and you can just sign
1:05:16up to be on our mailing list and keep
1:05:17abreast of everything we have going
1:05:20thank you so much for being listeners to
1:05:21this podcast i can't believe we're still
1:05:22in the 30s uh on episodes it feels like
1:05:25we just started doing this a couple days
1:05:26ago but you guys have been dedicated
1:05:28listeners please rate the podcast five
1:05:31stars if you include a question in your
1:05:33uh in your review we'll be sure to
1:05:34answer it on the show nick will be back
1:05:37soon we'll riff on that for sure
1:05:39and thank you guys for being listeners
1:05:40of moment of truth we'll see you next
1:05:42week
1:05:45moment of truth is an american moment
1:05:47studios production filmed at the
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1:05:51podcast is produced and edited by jake
1:05:54mercier and jared cummings our intro
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